LONDON – A member of Britain's House of Lords has been sentenced to 12 weeks in jail for dangerous driving after sending a text message minutes before a deadly crash.
Nazir Ahmed was sentenced Wednesday at Sheffield Crown Court in northern England. He was involved in an accident that left a man dead on Christmas Day 2007.
Prosecutors say Ahmed sent and received a series of messages shortly before the accident.
Judge Alan Wilkie acknowledged Ahmed's text message conversation was finished a few minutes before the collision. Nevertheless Wilkie said Ahmed's texting while driving was dangerous and that "only an immediate custodial sentence can be justified."
The judge also imposed a one year driving ban on Ahmed.